everybody. we want to start with a sex scandal of a major proportion at an atlanta area mega church. a third person has come forward accusing eddie long of sexual coercion. but instead his lawyer spoke. here's some of what he had to say. >> these false allegations are an attack on bishop long personally. they are an attack on new birth, the entire church and all of its 25,000 good people. >> nbc ron mott has been following this story and he joins us now from decatur, georgia. ron, good morning. >> hey, thomas. good day to you. eddie long is one of the most popular ministers in this country he built a religious empire in the atlanta area and some say these are simple attempts to bring all of that down. >> somebody needs to celebrate

that moment. somebody needs to bless god for that. >> reporter: he's hosted presidents like here at the funeral of coretta scott king. >> we thank the king family and we're in much prayer for you. >> reporter: he preaches to tens of thousands at his mega church outside atlanta. he counseled president clinton during the lewinsky scandal and an outspoken opponent of homosexuality. but today eddie long, who calls himself bishop, stands alone in the hot spotlight, sued in civil court by three former male members of his church for sexual coercion. no criminal charges have been filed. they say long introduced him to his world of luxury, private jets, rolls royces and even putting them on the church payroll while pressuring them into having sex. >> the bishop was grooming young men to be at his disposal. he finds them at 14 or 15 years

of age and he starts to get a relationship with them at that primary time when a young man's really searching for his identity. >> reporter: the man's attorney said long sent another young male member of his church not involved in the lawsuits this picture of himself, dressed far differently than his tailored suits. long has yet to speak publicly. his spokes american called it a shake down. >> a lot of things being said out there, but before rushing to judgment on bishop long and the court of public opinion, i really do hope that he would look at guys who are throwing mud and just consider the source right now. >> members of long's new birth missionary church, a congregation set to number 25,000 include popular atlanta deejay frank ski who also defended his pastor. >> as a friend and as an extended family member, i have loyalty and i'm lawyer to him. i am standing by his side through this and even afterwards. >> reporter: part of the debate

between supporters and detractors is motive. one of the accusers, 20-year-old maurice robinson was arrested over the summer in connection with a burglary at long's church. the case is still pending. there was some talk today about eddie long speaking publicly today, that is not going to happen. he issued a statement saying he will address his congregation first this sunday. thomas? >> ron, when we talk about this from a civil standpoint, what about a criminal standpoint? did these people go to the police to file a criminal complaint against long? >> we do not believe they did. we talked to bernstein said the dekalb county georgia and there were no charges at this point, thomas, criminally. >> ron, thank you. it is certainly a big day at the united nations today. representatives from 192 countries gather at the general assembly and among them, president barack obama, making just his second appearance before the group. his speech wrapped up just a

little while ago and addressed a number of issues from the global economy, climate change and world disasters. a large part of his speech was devoted to the israeli/palestinian conflict. >> peace must be made by israelis and palestinians, but each of us has a responsibility to do our part, as well. when we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the united nations, an independent, sovereign state of palestinian living in peace with isra israel. >> nbc mike viqueira joining us now from the white house. mike, did the president hit all the right notes this morning? >> this is an annual thing. an opening of the general assembly and this president had addressed them last year at this time and he made the trip and hit a number of issues that you would expect given the venue. he talk about iraq and reconfirmed the commitment and iran, tough talk for iran and its regime in terms of its nuclear program and getting tough and saying at the same time the door is still open for

diplomatic engagement and on the middle east, you pointed out that he spent a great deal of time talking about that. starting out saying that jews and arabs are not change strangers in a strange land. he went on to reaffirm the commitment's for an extension of the housing moratorium in the west bank and made that rather optimistic hope that he expressed there that there could be an independent sovereign palestinian represented there at the united nations. by this time next year and that will meet a lot of skepticism, thomas. but he also talked about the economy, not only the global economy, but america's role in helping to right the economic ship. he talked about trade, climate change and it all ties in. here's more on what he had to say on that topic. >> i have had no greater focus as president than rescuing our economy from potential catastrophe. and in an age when prosperity is shared, we could not do this alone. >> and the president spent the better portion of his speech, almost the entire second half,

thomas, talking about human rights. a little bit of a surprise and here's a little bit of what he touched on on that topic, as well. >> this institution can still play an indispensable role in the advance of human rights. it's time to welcome the efforts of u.n. women to protect the rights of women around the fwloeb. >> and, of course, the president continues on in new york all day today remaining overnight for a second day and raising a little political money while he's in new york, as well. thomas, you may have heard at a couple dnc fund-raisers last night heckled by people who want an end to don't ask, don't tell among other things. thomas? >> mike viqueira live at the white house for us, thank you. also this morning president obama discussed iran's nuclear program. take a listen. >> iran is the only partner to the mpt that cannot demonstrate the peaceful intentions of its

nuclear program. and those actions have consequences. >> now, later this afternoon, iran's president, mahmoud ahmadinejad will address the assembly and we want to bring in ali who is in studio with me here. >> iran is under a lot of pressure. you can see some tough words from president obama there. they are under heavy amount of sanks. we have to see how he is going to respond. so far his rhetoric hasn't been that far when he was in new york and maybe he's been saving it up today and we want to see how he responds to all of this. they're under an incredible amount of pressure in iran. whether they want to make a deal come softer or not, we will see it come 3:30 this afternoon. >> the president addressed the israeli/palestinian conflict. do we think ahmadinejad will go on the record to address israel. >> he likes to be the defender

of palestine, even if sometimes they don't want him to defend him. so, he will probably go on the record. i would be surprised if he didn't. >> he has already made a statement earlier since he's been here, i believe, referring to netanyahu as a skilled killer. >> he has. he is always very vocal about israelis and he doesn't recognize israel as a state and he has supported iran doing that at the very high level of the conservative count. they support his rhetoric. so, they will be playing to his camp in iran. >> we will see what he has to say coming up. thank you very much. 40 days to the mid-term elections and house republicans are announcing their ideas that they're running on. it is called pledge to america and also be called contract with america take two. some key points to the platform make bush tax cuts permanent, vote weekly on spending cuts and end an effort to reveal president obama's health care reform bill. john boehner spelling out this morning how they'll control

spending. >> we need to begin a new drive for a smaller, less costly and more accountable government in our nation's capital. these are the things that the american people are demanding. and our pledge to america is that the republicans stand ready to get it done. >> john harwood is cnbc chief washington correspondent and, john, we said this could be called take two, the contract with america because newt gingrich tried this 16 years ago and it worked. >> exactly. they like that playbook. they think they have the circumstances lined up in a similar fashion. democratic president who's fried to do a lot, actually gotten more of it done than president bill clinton did in 1994. but against the backdrop of this very dramatically weak economy, 15 million people out of work, they think they can really drive a further wedge between this administration, democratic majority and congress and the american people. what they didn't do, though, is

spell out how they are going to reduce spending. they said they were going to do it. they talked about some small things like freezes on federal hiring and identifying $100 billion in discretionary spending. but the big money is, you know, thomas, entitlement programs and medicare and social security. they have a ranking republican on the house budget committee who is actually put out a detailed road map for america's future. they stay ten miles away from that here and they know the details of that road map are controversial and could hurt their candidates in the elections. >> in the town hall you just had with the president this week, how did he address spending? >> well, the president, first of all, he challenged republicans and the tea party on coming up with specifics. that's some of the point that i just mentioned to them avoiding ryan's road map. the presidents's got a commission that will come out in december. the question is, as i asked him at the town hall, are you serious about it? he indicated that he was. they did have some spending cuts in medicare that were in the health care plan.

now, that takes them off the table for further deficit reduction but we'll see what the review commission comes up with. the president has said everything in medicare and social security is on the table, whether it's raising the retirement age or raising the cap on taxation for social security benefits. and the president is going to have a test in december and one of the questions is going to be, is he going to have a democratic or republican majority in the congress to work on it. >> ivent seen you since your town hall, but i have to commend you, you did a great job. >> that's very nice of you, thank you. >> john har wood, thank you. high winds hit a steeple on a church and almost hit one woman's desk but she was away at the time. nobody was hurt. some astronauts on the international space station have found a very down to earth way to share their amazing experience with all of us. they are now tweeting photos from space. take a look at this stunning image from nasa commander

douglas wheellock. he's sharing his view of everything from too the wild weather in the atlantic and the images are just breathtaking. imagine if you can do that at your day job. coming up, a glimmer of hope for some of the 2.5 million americans facing foreclosure after a mortgage giant's mistakes are uncovered. plus, he's number 35 in "forbes'" richest list and now facebook's co-founder is giving money away to one local school district. six weeks after they were trapped underground. 33 miners remain trapped and how much longer until they see sunlight? after using rogaine for a while, i went to my stylist

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welcome back, everybody. sales of existing homes rose more than 7% in august from the previous month. sales were down 19% from a year earlier and august was the second worst month for sales in more than a decade. july, that turned out to be the worst month. you know, tens of thousands of home foreclosures across the country are now in question. that's because paperwork may not have been reviewed properly by gmac mortgage. that's one of the nation's largest home financers. the company unit of ali financial has halted evices in 23 states around the country and hundreds of other companies may also be affected, including mortgage giants fannie mae and freddie mac because they use it to service their loans. joining me now real estate broker attorney and consumer advocate tara nicole nelson and, tara, all of this happened because a person at gmac mortgage admitted in depositions that he was unlawfully signing off on foreclosures by the

thousands without reviewing this paperwork. apparently, robo signing documents is what they're calling it. >> abslooluteabsolutely. this man's nickname included the word robot. so, what happened was there is a 13-person unit of ali financial, gmac mortgage that is responsible only for signing off on all these foreclosure documents. a couple homeowners sued them saying they had not done this process correctly. this particular individual was responsible, not just for signing them, but also for reviewing the underlining files and making sure there were justifications for foreclosing on these homes and in these depositions on these lawsuits he made the admission that, in fact, what he really did instead of review files glance at names and glance at numbers and sign thousands of documents before shipping them off to a notary who was supposed to be in the same room with him during the signings. it's really, though, not a case of any sort of malicious intention on this particular individual's behalf, just a case

of an inhuman workload. this man was responsible for handsigning 10,000 documents a month. >> his workload, we feel sorry for him, but we have to feel sorry for the people who went through foreclosure who may be an illegal process for them. what type of legal route can these people take? do they have any recourse? >> there's several things. so, absolutely. it is a case that in a court of law, if they can prove these documents were wrong, incorrectly executed, which in many of these cases they can, the court can reverse the foreclosure. here's where it gets really complicated. if the home has already been resold to a bonified purchaser and that is just a buyer who had no idea what was going on at the bank level and the underlying facts did legally justify the foreclosure, courts are very hesitant to reverse the sale of the home and reverse the foreclosure in those cases, although they may impose damages against the bank if they can prove that the bank's behavior was unfair and deceptive. on the other hand, other courts

feel totally differently. sort of like what you were just saying. you know, a foreclosure is the loss of a person's largest asset. these banks, it's a david and goliath situation with these individual homeowners against these well-funded, well-staffed banks and the banks ought to get it right. many could reduce foreclosures. here is what i think is very interesting. i will be very interested to see how many of the foreclosed homeowners actually want these homes back. when you talk about reversing a foreclosure in these kind of situations you're talking about putting them back in a situation where they are hundreds of thousands of dollars underwater and six months behind on their mortgage payments. many of these people will have already moved on with their lives. so, even to get a few extra months back in the home isn't that much of a remedy to them. >> looking for a long-term solution. tara nicole nelson, great to see you. thanks for being with us today. >> thank you. one of the nation's hardest

hit cities gets a huge infusion of for its struggling schools. who is giving such a genras donation? big news for the former top general fired after an explosive magazine article. stay tuned. you are watching msnbc. but your blood sugar may still be high, and you need extra help. ask your doctor about onglyza, a once daily medicine used with diet and exercise to control high blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. adding onglyza to your current oral medicine may help reduce after meal blood sugar spikes and may help reduce high morning blood sugar. [ male announcer ] onglyza should not be used to treat type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. tell your doctor if you have a history or risk of diabetic ketoacidosis. onglyza has not been studied with insulin. using onglyza with medicines such as sulfonylureas may cause low blood sugar. some symptoms of low blood sugar are shaking, sweating and rapid heartbeat. call your doctor if you have an allergic reaction like rash, hives or swelling of the face, mouth or throat.

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at&t. rethink possible. the new blackberry torch with a slide-out keyboard for $199.99. only from at&t. in today's tech watch a 17-year-old australian student says he unwittingly caused a massive hacker attack in twitter this week. he exposed the security flaw which was pounced on by hackers. it took the white house press secretary's feed over. the twitter has now apologized to its millions of users for that hackinging stake. friendship, facebook and major funding. the newark public school system is about to receive a $100 million boost and that major donation will come from 26 billionaire and facebook founder mark zuckerberg.

it stemmed from a new friendship formed with newark mayor cory booker. nbc ron allen is joining me now to talk about this. that's a whole lot of cash that will go to newark. >> they must be very, very good friends. >> let's talk about the school system there and why the need is so great. >> it has become synonymous with so many things that are bad in urban america and the city itself. cory booker is in his second term and very charismatic, very personable figure and been making a lot of efforts to try to get private donations to help out newark because they can't raise the money themselves. this is a good example of how successful he has been. there are other grants and other money he has attracted, as well. $100 million is a huge amount of money. i think the budget for the school system is $800 million a year. that gives you a sense of how significant this is. it's unclear exactly how the money is going to be used.

mayor has to come up with a plan that mr. zuckerberg will approve and newark has been under state control for the last 10 or 15 years, the school system has been so troubled. >> didn't governor christie just recently not rehire the school superintendent because of what's been taking place and why the school system has been failing. >> some personnel changes but the governor, the mayor have to come together to figure out what to do with this money. money, of course, doesn't solve every problem the school system has, but it's a huge vote of confidence, certainly. one thing that mayor booker has been trying to do is improve the image of newark. it's the butt of so many jokes about bad things in urban america and this will certainly go a long way to doing that and implementing practical things on the ground for teachers, for students and books, equipment. >> the big announcement comes tomorrow on oprah. >> not here, tomorrow on oprah, she is quite a force. >> quite a force, indeed.

but interesting to see what she has asks mark zuckerberg about that new movie coming out. i would like to see if she gets him on record for that. programming note to pass along to all of you. on monday matt lauer sits dwoun with a live interview with president obumma. kick off the state of education in america. the interview will air live on msnbc for a full half hour beginning at 8:00 a.m. eastern time and you can submit your questions for the president at educationnation.com. send away. after a break, from celebrities to world leaders, calls for virginia to hold back as the state prepares to execute a woman with an iq of just 72. plus, new details about how the cia is waging war against alcada and the taliban in afghanistan and then a little bit later, courtney hazlett has the scoop on what joaquin phoenix had to say to david letterman. o make me sneeze... my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief,

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developing right now for you the food and drug administration has just ruled that they will allow the diabetes pill avandia to stay on the market but stay on with restrictions. fda panel recommended in july that avandia stay on the market but with additional warnings to be placed on its label. the state of virginia is now preparing to execute a woman for the first time in nearly a century. it's a case that's drawn international attention and outramg from the european union, even iran's president. tonight at 9:00, theresa lewis is scheduled to die by lethal injection. she is convicted of hiring a mittm hitman. covers crime and the courts and she interviewed theresa lewis. she joins me now on the telephone and let's start with the legal appeals part of this.

have they all been exhausted? >> yes. the supreme court has denied her petition for a stay and the governor of virginia has refused to grant her requests ask at this point it looks like it will go forward tonight. >> maria, with your talks with her a lot of attention made on the fact that she has an i.q. of 72. what did you walk away with your conversation with her? >> the supreme court does not allow the state to execute people who are mentally retarded. maria is borderline and she falls just above the definition. so, her supporters say she's right on that line and she didn't have intelectual capacity but the prosecutors say she did a lot of things, took a lot of actions to make this crime happen. she gave the gunman money and opened the doors so they could get into the house and she really knew what she was doing. >> from the standpoint of where she stands now and i know we said all the legal routes have

been exhausted. does she understand what's hapening to her and what has happened to her? >> you know, when i spoke with her, she said she did understand, she understood that a death sentence was possible, but she was really pleading for her life at that point. she said she wanted to live and she thought she had some good she could offer other woman in prison. >> maria, thank you for joining us and shedding light on this story. >> thanks so much. take care. new details about the cia covert war in afghanistan. according to bob woodward's latest book, the cia has a much larger secret paramilitary and nbc john yang is in kabul afghanistan with more on that and also we'll talk about the partial election results because they're starting to come in, too, correct? >> exactly, thomas. let's take the paramilitary for

force. the new book. "obama's wars" new hints that the wikileaks organization released. this is an organization about 3,000 afghan forces, the cream of the crop in the view of the cia, according to woodward's book and they pursue, they're paid for, sorry, they're paid and trained by the cia and they pursue taliban targets within afghanistan. i think the more controversial element is that they carry out missions across border. they cross into pakistan to carry out missions and u.s. military forces are prohibited from doing. this force was authorized by president bush and according to woodward's book, the cross border operations became a little more active under the obama administration, thomas. >> and, john, let's shift gears,

though, and talk about the partial election results. as they are starting to trickle in. we talked about this earlier this week, it took months to figure out who was going to be in power there. >> trickle is the right word, thomas. today the election commission released preliminary partial results from five of the 34 provinces. and they say that these things, these numbers could change. the big question is how much, how many irregularities and how much fraud. there has already been about more than 1,400 complaints of voter irregularities. voter election officials say they've segregated some ballots that they're suspicious of. they won't say how many. but we don't expect full preliminary numbers until the beginning of november and then the deeper investigation of these algigzigations of fraud will begin and they won't begin to certify final results until the end of october.

>> yajohn yang in kabul for us, thanks so much. the results of an investigation are in and general stanley mcchrystal and his most senior aides have been cleared of making the worst, most disparaging remarks about the boss in an article. general mcchrystal was relieved of his role as the top commander in afghanistan after an infamous article that appeared in "rolling stone" this june. mcchrystal's inner circle mocked and said demeaning things about president biden. he is teaching a course currently at yale university. a small setback for the 33 miners trapped underground in chile. rescue crews said one of the hammers on a drill being used to dig the miners out broke off and fell down the tunnel. none of the minors were hurt and drilling has continued. natalie morales is live at the chile and explain what happened when the drill broke off.

it went stroaight into the mine where the miners are trapped. >> that is the drill bit from plan b, the drill bit operated by an american company here, center rock incorporated. the drill that did break off, one of the miners actually spotted it inside the tunnel and actually rivered the drill bit and were able to clear the way. the miners have been instrumental in helping clear rock and other things like this drill bit that fell through and, as you mentioned, xdfortunately none of the miners were in the way when that happened. i was told by plan b that they yesterday put on a new drill bit and progress continues there again today. yesterday they were already more than 300 feet into the mine. so, they're making progress there. but this is day 50 here and progress is really measured daily by how far those drills are getting into the mine shaft. you can see them working behind me, 24/7. it's a rescue operation. drill plan a, we're told, is more than halfway there. as we mentioned, plan b, the

drill there is already more than 300 feet and, by the way, the founder of that mining company said that when they heard they were talking about a christmas rescue effort here, he said they absolutely found that unimaginable and they knew that they had the technology and the equipment that could help. >> stuff like this hits real close to our heart and we just wanted to come down there and do something. so far the miners have actually w been a help to our operation. what they're seeing down there versus what we're seeing on the surface. >> and, by the way, the guys, the team there from center rock incorporated, their expertise has been crucial here because they were involved in rescuing the nine members from the cue creak mine in pennsylvania in 2002. everyone is looking to that same happy ending here in the san jose mine. in fact, we're being told that progress is so steady that they're already anticipating

that that time frame for a rescue is moving up, it's still somewhat conservative, according to officials. they're saying early november, but a lot of the local reporters and the family members here are talking about early to mid october already. and there's a capsule that's also being finalized now by the design plan and it's expected to be here already by next week at the mine site. so, things are moving along fairly quickly and they're getting the miners ready for that day when they're reunited with their families. tom sns. >> are they preparing the miners for their international fame that they're going to have the minute they get out? >> of course, the onslot of media. you know we'll all be here and they are actually getting some media training right now to help prepare them for that day. and, obviously, you know, it's going to be a slow phase-in process to get them back to the real world. we're told that the local hospital here is also preparing because they do want to make

sure to check them out health wise because there is some transition, obviously, getting them back to their everyday lives. >> natalie morales, thank you. several economic news making news this morning. we also learned new claims for unemployment benefits raised unexpectedly by 12,000. the first increase in five weeks. meantime, the index of leading economic indicators rose 0.3% in august and that signals slow, economic growth will continue in the coming months. blockbuster, once the nation's dominant movie company filed for bankruptcy protection today. a victim of the changing habits. blockbuster will continue to operate its 3,000 u.s. stores. and pricy coffee chain starbucks announced it will raise prices on some of its drinks, those include larger size and hard to make drinks. starbucks blames the rising price of the coffee it has to buy so it will charge you more. joaquin phoenix fesses up

and we'll get the scoop now from courtney hazlett. so, he goes back to david letterman. >> he had to do it eventually. it was more than a year ago that joaquin phoenix sat down and behaved badly, to say the least. he went back to the show last night and i'm not going to say he was contrite, i think that would be overstating the caseap. take a look. >> a year and a half ago you came out and honestly, it's like you slipped and hit your head in the tub. and i knew immediately when you sat down something ain't right. >> i hope i didn't offend you in any way. >> oh, no, no, no i'm not offended. it was so much fun. it really -- >> good. yeah. we just -- >> it was batting practice. you know what i mean? every one of them was a dinger. >> it was batting practice. i have to say, to this day, it was one of dave's finest moments. he handled that so well and i

haven't seen "i'm still here" the movie that joaquin was making but hear that appearance makes a cameo and i hope it's represented in the right way because, really, dave did a fantastic job handling a bizarre situation. he was not aware of what was going on. this was all just coming at him as it was coming at him. >> speaking of movies "the social network" is heading our way. >> already it's getting oscar buzz, which i find to be just fascinating. not because of the quality of the movie or infamy or both. critics are saying, the screen junkies, the social network is the movie of the year and we're into computers and this would be "the godfather." pete hammen said a social significant to this generation "all the presidents men" and "graduate" were all to their own time. it will have to live up to this kind of praise before it even

comes out. we are talking so much about mark zackerbering especially with the $100 million donation, this is a movie, not a documentary. it's telling a story, not a history. compelling filmmaking. >> speaking of which, cast a spell for us with harry potter. >> on a much lighter note, we can all just go into lunch happy now. harry potter, the new film opens up on november 19th and there's a great new scary trailer that's just been released. here, let's watch some of it. >> i must be the one to kill harry potter. >> let's get off the streets and get somewhere safe. >> get undercover before someone murders him. >> that way we won't know which harry potser the real one. >> coming. >> go! >> i can see you're shaking in

your boots over there, thomas. remember, another part will be released after this. >> they're breaking into two. >> stretching out this last book into two films, wise, because it will make a lot of money. >> it looks really good. >> i think it will be fantastic and i interviewed the cast earlier in the summer and they were so effusive about this last film and just about how the way it is directed and the kids are grown up now and able to bring so much more to the table from an acting standpoint, too, than they were in the first films. i think it will be excellent. >> all right, courtney, thanks so much. for the very latest on entertainment news, logon to scoop.todayshow.com and we'll be right back after this. stay with us. in love with the most personalized most customized piece of furniture you will ever own. ♪ get that one piece right and the rest of the room will just fall into place. it starts with you

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in today's true crime, the so-called beauty bandit says she stole thousands of dollars from miami area dollctors. she admitted to running without

paying after receiving numerous plastic surgeries. nbc kerry sanders has that story from bay harbor islands, florida. >> reporter: thomas, the american society for plastic surgeons estimates as a nation we spend $10 billion on procedures last year. but as you'll see, sometimes the costs of going under the knife on a table like this is so deep, patients have the surgeries even though they cannot afford the cut. with the black ankle monitor strapped just over her matching s stiletto heels she paraded into court to be judged. her appearance before this bar on charges of grand theft, identity theft and fraud. prosecutors say 29-year-old maria krisen obsessed with her looks systematically visited various south florida plastic surgery clinics. getting botox, sculpting her look, the price of beauty, more

than $5,000. but investigators say every time she cut out before paying. >> yes, this is the first time that i had anybody accused of stealing botox. >> reporter: her lawyer says that the deal offered by prosecutors was picture perfect. restitution to the doctors, a $500 fine and community service. >> well, i'm just glad that i'm off of my house arrest and i can move on with my life. >> reporter: the unemployed beauty bandit still faces charges in another jurisdiction, although on her facebook page, which has dozens of photos, some not appropriate for television, she claims that plastic surgery patient who nipped out after tucking her wallet deep in her purse was a lookalike, not her. >> she has features that are very unique, so i could see her in china and know that it was her. >> reporter: her monitor is off and like cellulite, there is no promise it won't come back. the terms of her sentence require strict attention. the beauty bandit offered no

excuses. but her lawyer did try to explain. >> well, everybody wants to look fabulous. >> reporter: the doctor who uses this surgical suite was also taken by some other beauty bandits. the fbi investigated, this is how it often works. the patients show up and doctors usually take a before picture so they compare for the after, but the patients say, oh, i can't have my picture taken because i am under a modeling contract, so, it's that much more difficult for the investigators to find the patient because they show up using a fake name. thomas? >> that was kerry sanders. well, he beats out billi billionairs from hollywood, big business and even oprah. the man who co-founded facebook makes the forbes richest list. where does he stand on that list? the answer is straight ahead on msnbc.our jo and find ways to help workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. we'll keep restoring the jobs, tourist beaches,

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so, while most of us are really struggling in this tough economy, it appears it richest

of the rich, well, they're only getting wealthier. "forbes" magazine is out with the analyst of the richest americans. topping the list for the 17th straight year is microsoft founder bill gates with $54 billion, up $4 billion from last year, warren buffet, worth $45 billion, up $5 billion from a year ago. and larry ellison worth $27 billion. however, that's unchanged from last year. joining me now is michelle caruso cabrera. excuse me. let's talk about some of the other notables on here. i have a bit of a cold. please forgive me, michelle. the list, the names are there all the time. the walmart heirs are new to this list. there's a lot of them on there. >> what's notable, you mentioned bill gates, $54 billion. the walmart empire is so enormous that four heirs to the original sam walton total $80 billion. and they all make the top ten, those four.

so imagine his empire was even bigger in theory than microsoft and bill gates'. the notable on the list is mayor of new york city, michael bloomberg. he made a ton of money selling what are called bloomberg machines. you go to any wall street trading firm, everybody has a machine that think of it as a souped up cable box but about stocks and bonds. they pay a monthly fee for that. he makes a ton of money off of that as well. >> a good way to make the money. we talked about facebook founder mark zuckerberg. he's on this list. where does he fall? >> $6.9 billion. he's low on the list, but big improvement compared to last year. last year he was worth only, in quotes, $2 billion. so there's been an improvement in his worth. we heard today he'll donate $100 million to the newark new jersey schools. so that's making a lot of

headlines. 40 members of this list so far have made this pledge to bill gates and warren buffet they're going to donate half of their money to charity. >> an amazing amount of welfare. christine whitman, donald trump is on there. george lieu kals. >> in total, $1.7 trillion. and this year, you have to be a billionaire. the recession was so bad that even the rich suffered. and last year, you could have made a measly $950 million to get on the list. now you have to be a billionaire. >> the sad thing is none of them are my friend. not on that list. great to see you. thanks so much. >> see you later. >> that's going to do it for me. contessa brewer will pick things up at the top of the hour. contes contessa? >> are republicans releasing the plan for america. what they don't address may be as important as what they do. we'll talk to j.d. hayward. one of america's richest preachers cancels a scheduled interview because a third man accuses him of using his position as a pastor of a megachurch to get sexual favors.

>> don't point out to individual council members. >> you are are a very disgraceful person tonight. gavel him down. gavel down. out, you've been dismissed. city councilwoman grabs the reins, yelling at citizens, reaming her fellow council members. they're calling her a dictator, they're demanding her ouster. we'll going to play more of this. there's more. just ahead. - lafayette, what're you doing? - ( music playing )

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